A variety of electronic computers are available for processing information and various data. Conventionally these computers use floppy discs as a media for external memory storage. Each floppy disc is made from a flexible magnetic disc which is sealed inside of a jacket or liner. The liner is normally made from soft sheetlike material such as a non-woven fabric. The liner protects the floppy magnetic disc from dust and, at the same time, provides the disc with an adequate amount of rotation torque.
The soft material which makes up liner is inherently subject to elongation from the effect of tensile force. When producing liners by continuously cutting soft material which is subject to elongation due to the effect of tensile force, extreme care should be exercised to prevent the liner from incurring elongation, severance, and distortion caused by such tensile force. To prevent this, conventionally a cutting line of the basic pattern is sequentially and individually formed, either from above or from below, on the surface of soft material as it is conveyed in a horizontal direction, followed by removal of useless portions until only the essential portion remain for eventually making up the liner.
Nevertheless, when cutting soft material which is subject to elongation due to the effect of tensile force while conveying it in the horizontal direction, the cutting operation may be executed against the soft material which is already elongated by tensile force. Elongation causes the above soft material to incur distortion and slack, thus eventually causing the essential portion to deform itself via the cutting operation. Since any of these conventional liner processing systems sequentially and individually form cutting lines of a basic pattern and then remove useless portions from the processed material, production of liners on a continuous basis cannot be properly executed.
An object of this invention is to overcome the problems mentioned above by providing an apparatus capable of continuously cutting off soft material which is subject to elongation due to the effect of tensile force without causing the material to incur elongation, severance, distortion, and slack, throughout the entire processing operations.
To achieve the above object, the invention provides an apparatus for continuously cutting soft material subject to elongation due to the effect of tensile force, which apparatus is provided with the following: means for supplying a layered severable member from an upper position to a lower position, in which the severable member is superimposedly composed of a thin sheetlike flexible soft material which is subject to elongation due to the effect of tensile force and a thin sheetlike flexible solid base material which inhibits elongation of the soft material due to said tensile force; means for forming continuous cutting lines of basic configuration on a surface of the severable member delivered from the upper position to the lower position; means for removing only useless portions from the severable member so as to leave only the essential portion; and means for independently winding the soft material and the solid base material after separating them from the useless portions.
The inventive apparatus sequentially executes the above operations including the following: supplying the severable member which is superimposedly composed of soft material and solid base material from the upper position to the lower position; repeatedly forming cutting lines of basic pattern on the surface of the supplied severable member thereafter removing only the useless portions from the severable member so as to leave only the essential portion; and separating the soft material and the solid base material from each other and independently winding them.
By implementing these sequential operations, the apparatus related to the invention can continuously cut off soft material which is subject to elongation by effect of tensile force without causing it to incur elongation, severance, distortion, and slack which would otherwise be caused due to the effect of tensile force.